The present invention relates to an attachment assembly for a housing such as an air filter housing with a plastic attachment tab and a releasable attachment clip. The attachment tab has at least one through aperture and is used to fasten the air filter housing to a motor vehicle by means of screw connections. This fastening is accomplished in such a way that the air filter housing will not come loose, despite the vibrations to which it is exposed.
For the attachment of air filter housing using attachment tabs of this type, it is known to insert an additional metal part into the through aperture. When the screw connections are tightened, the vibrational forces are absorbed by the metal part and therefore do not loosen the screw connection as a result of the creepage of the plastic in the course of time (see Schreyer, Gunther "Konstruieren mit Kunststoffes" "Constructing with plastics", Hanser Verlag Munich 1972, pages 266, 267). These metal parts are either surrounded with plastic by injection molding during production of the attachment tab, or they are subsequently attached to the attachment tab as an additional part. This first method of fastening the metal part is relatively expensive and is therefore undesirable when mass producing plastic parts. For this reason, the metal parts are usually attached to the attachment tabs subsequently.
A metal plate, for example, has been used for this purpose, and a metal sleeve which projects through the tab aperture is formed on the plate. The plate is sufficiently long so that it can be crimped around on the bearing surface of the attachment tab. The metal part is thereby connected firmly to the attachment tab like a rivet. Lateral guides on the surface of the attachment tab opposite the bearing surface prevent lateral rotation of the metal part. This method is considered disadvantageous because the metal part has to be produced separately as a drawn part and then inserted with its sleeve into the through aperture. The fastening then has to be carried out subsequently in a separate operation. In addition, this attachment method can cause the surface protection to be damaged.